For a while, earlier this year, it seemed as if we were completely at the mercy of killer asteroids. On the same day that Asteroid 2012 DA14 passed within 17,000 miles of the earth -- closer than a communication satellite orbits -- we had the meteor that exploded over Russia, injuring more than a thousand people, followed a few days later by another meteor that produced a spectacular fireball seen over much of America's east coast. In each case there was little warning and not much that we could have done if those rocks had been bigger.

Asked a few weeks ago at a Congressional hearing what we could do if we had a few weeks' warning of an incoming asteroid, NASA chief Charles Bolden said: "pray."

This isn't the place for a faith-based initiative.

But things are looking up. Step one in protecting the Earth from an asteroid threat is to find the asteroids that might hit us. NASA has been looking for the really big ones -- the "civilization killers" that are 1000 meters or more across -- and has probably found most of them by now. But what about the ones that aren't that big, but that would nonetheless produce an earth-shattering kaboom measured in the megatons or hundreds of megatons if they struck?

In that area, we're starting to see more action. First, a nonprofit, the B612 Foundation, is working to launch an infrared space telescope, called Sentinel, that will spot over 90% of asteroids over 140 meters, and a significant number of smaller ones (the meteor that exploded over Russia was about 17 meters across) to provide warning. You can't address an asteroid threat that you don't know about, said B612 spokesman and founder Ed Lu in a conversation we had last week.

The story he told me was interesting: He spoke at Google, where he was working at the time (Lu is a former astronaut with a PhD in astrophysics from Stanford) and someone in the audience asked him why he was so focused on getting the government to do something -- why not do it himself? Well, said Lu, a space telescope would cost hundreds of millions. Big deal, said the audience member -- we just raised $400 million for an art museum in San Francisco, so surely you can raise as much to save civilization. Good point, thought Lu.

Now they're moving ahead with considerable support. But there's a lot of synergy developing in other areas, too. Lately, startups like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries are looking to mine asteroids, because asteroids are full of valuable minerals -- as well as water and oxygen that can be used to support activity in space. Conveniently enough, the technologies needed to capture and move these asteroids for exploitation overlap considerably with the technologies needed to protect the Earth from a dangerous asteroid. In fact, with these technologies at hand, an asteroid headed for the Earth would look less like a threat than an opportunity.

And just this past weekend, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson announced NASA's plans to capture an asteroid for scientific purposes. Interestingly, when challenged on the question of whether this involved competing with the private sector, the Obama Administration replied that it intended to cooperate with the B612 foundation and various commercial ventures.

Somewhere out there is a killer asteroid or comet with Earth's name on it. It might strike in 30 minutes, or 30,000 years. But the good news is that, at last, our planet seems to be getting its act together for self-protection. It's about time.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee. He blogs at InstaPundit.com.

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